Let’s talk turkey. No, I don’t mean the turkey that you’ll be carving later this week. I mean one of the most important parts of your business PR campaign – your web site.

Does your website really do you justice? Let’s look at a few things and see…

-Your site’s navigation – is it easy to move from one page of your site to another? No matter what type navigation you have, moving around your site should be easy for your visitors.

-Contact information – do you have at least one way for your visitors to contact you? At the very least, you should have an email link and street address listed. Even better, have a contact form on your site – this is especially nice for those visitors who might not have email capability on their computers, or who might be using someone else’s computer.

-Call to action – does your site invite visitors to interact with you? Using a form, you can take a poll, invite reviews or suggestions, take orders or even ask them to sign up for your newsletter.

-Mission statement – don’t make your visitors guess what you do – tell them! Now this may seem silly, but how many times have you landed on a site, and had no idea what it was about? The design of a site is very important, but it shouldn’t overwhelm the underlying message.

-Your personality – your website can have a professional look and feel, and still show your visitors who you are. After all, that’s what makes your site unique – the fact that you own it. If your business is just like everyone else’s, why should anyone buy from you? That’s where your personality and individuality comes in. There is something that you do better than anyone else – and the key is to have your website show that off. If you’ve got the best prices in your area, or if you offer excellent customer service before and after the sale, then your site should show that. Give your guests (read potential customers) a reason to do business with you.

So, take a cold hard look at your site, and see if it says “you” – if not, talk to your webmaster and let them make some suggestions that will spice up your site!

By the way, if you’d like to have your site reviewed by professional web designers, you can submit it to The Design & Publishing Center (http://www.graphic-design.com/) – look for Web Design Review and Critiques in the menu on the left. They’ll do a great job and tell you exactly what might need to be changed.

What direction are you going? Do you have goals that you are actively working towards, or do you get up every morning and just sort of drift in what you hope is the right direction? As I said last month, I’ve been fortunate enough to attend some very good time management seminars, and they’ve made a huge difference in my life, both personal and professional.

One of the best things I learned in these meetings was how important a mission statement isfor everyone, no matter what your business. It doesn’t have to be long, involved or fancy, but you need something written down that you can refer to (and edit as necessary) so you can know if you’re on track with where you want to be.

So how do you write a mission statement? The most important thing you can do to begin is look at your own life and really see what’s important to you. Make a list of things you’d like to accomplish. Think about what folks will say at your funeral (I know, it sounds terrible) – what type person will they say you were? Will they say what you’d like for them to say? If not, what do you need to change about yourself? What legacy do you want to leave your family?

All these things, and more, tell you who you are. If you are concerned that your kids be well-adjusted, successful people, what can you do that will help them achieve that? And if you want to leave a large sum of money to your local homeless shelter, what type of arrangements do you need to make now? These are the type things you’d write in your mission statement.

After you’ve decided the type person you are (or want to be), then you need to set long-term goals. Don’t just think about them. Get some paper out and write them down. Then (and this is the hard part) figure out what you need to do to reach those goals. Brainstorm until you’ve come up with every single thing you can do to reach that goal. Is your goal to pick up ten new clients? OK – so what have you got to do to get them? Some things might include handing out business cards to everyone you meet, join a local civic group that would allow you to meet new people, learn how to position yourself as an expert in your field (for more information on that, contact me).

After you’ve got your list of goals done, with all the things to reach those goals, then what? Hold yourself accountable by putting dates to each item, and add them to your datekeeper on those dates. Then, most important of all, DO THEM!

I know this sounds tough, but remember, if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.